Are We on Our Last Step? - Love Worth Finding with Adrian Rogers

Romans 1:24

We live in days where every basic tenet Christians uphold is being shaken. We need something solid to stand on. This day of wickedness is described in Scripture as the last step down for any person or nation. The Apostle Paul exposed that last step. He needed believers to understand just how bad sin is—just how lost a nation can be. Paul’s letter to the Romans is intended to give us a sure foundation. The Gospel is good news, but before you can appreciate the good news, you have to hear the bad news.

Romans chapter 1 lays out that bad news, the terrible consequences of sin. If we want people to be saved, we must first help them understand they’re lost—and just how lost they are. Our nation needs to hear the book of Romans because most Americans are egomaniacs—peacocks strutting to hell, thinking they’re too good to be damned.

Romans 1:24-25 explains what happens when people reject God:

Therefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

Each time Romans says “God gave them up” or “God gave them over,” the context is sexual sin. When a nation no longer upholds basic sexual morality, God says, “That’s the last step. I give up.” He gave them up to dishonor their own bodies. Of all the “unrighteousness” named in Romans 1:26-31, sexual immorality tops the list.

But if you speak against sexual immorality, you’re labeled a bigot. America is in crisis. Without a moral rebirth, we will join the graveyard of nations. Look at the way we’ve voted for immorality when God’s Word is clear: “You shall not commit adultery” (Deuteronomy 5:18).

I’m concerned about our children and grandchildren if the Lord tarries—what will they see and accept from today’s world? God laments: “Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!” (Deuteronomy 5:29)

Those engaging in immorality are reaping bitter fruit in their lives, missing God’s best—His plan for them.

A nation cannot endure without morality. The foundational basis of society is the home, and sexual faithfulness holds the home together.

Why is sexual immorality of any type a heinous, hellish sin?

1. It’s a sin against yourself.

Sexual immorality will damage you more spiritually, psychologically, and physically than any other sin (see 1 Corinthians 6:18).

2. It’s a sin against the home.

Every year adultery tears apart the lives of innocent children. A child needs the context of a home. The glue holding the home together is sexual faithfulness.

3. It’s is a sin against the Church.

If you’re a church member living an impure life, you’ve sinned against the rest of us, because we’re in this together. (See 1 Corinthians 12.) Your body is the temple of God. If you’re defiling God’s temple, He will destroy you. (See 1 Corinthians 3:17.)

4. It’s a sin against the nation.

“Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34).

Immorality was the sin that ended Greece, Rome, Egypt, and Babylon. It will ruin America. God will give up on this nation.

5. It’s a sin against Almighty God.

Sexual immorality is a sin against God because He declared it to be wrong (Exodus 20:14, Proverbs 6:32).